Gram Vikas, which literally translates to "Village Development", has been working for the well-being of tribal and marginalized communities in inaccessible rural areas for over a period of 35 years. Gram Vikas strives to promote sustainable, socially inclusive and gender equitable practices amongst these communities, thus enabling them to take control over their lives and reach a heightened sense of empowerment.
Gram Vikas operates through its flagship model, titled "Movement and Action Network for Transformation of Rural Areas (MANTRA)", which has been in operation since 2004. The major tenets of this model include 100% inclusion of the target communities, creation of self-managed community institutions, focus on ensuring social and gender equity, cost sharing, and sustainability of the interventions implemented. This model uses water and sanitation as an entry point and moves on to other need based intervention on Health, Social Housing, Natural Resource Management and Food Security, and Renewable Energy.
Capacity developmentMarket developmentRenewable energies and climate changeTechnology comparisonsFood security and productive sanitationRural areasCommunity sanitationEmergency and reconstructionPublic awareness, advocacy and civil society engagement Operation, maintenance and sustainable servicesGroundwater protectionWASH and nutritionBehaviour changeHealth and hygieneProduct design and engineeringPolitical processes and institutional aspectsLocal NGO
India
Gram Vikas
Headquarter location